The aim of this thesis was to study determinants of a readiness for pro-environmental travel behavior in households. Four empirical studies were conducted examining reduction in car use (Study I), acceptability of transport policy measures (Study II and III), and behavioral adaptations in response to travel demand management (TDM) measures (Study IV). In Study I, the aim was to interrupt habitual car use by means of a deliberation intervention and to examine the importance of moral motivation (i.e., personal norm) for car use reduction. Results showed that, as a result of the intervention, car use was mainly reduced among car users with a strong car use habit and a strong moral motivation to reduce car use. The aim of Study II was to examine factors important for the acceptability of three TDM measures: raised tax on fossil fuel, improved public transport, and an information campaign. The results demonstrated the importance of general environmental beliefs (i.e., pro-environmental orientation, problem awareness, personal norm, and willingness to reduce car use) and policy specific beliefs (i.e., perceived impact on freedom to choose travel mode and own car use, perceived effectiveness, and perceived fairness) for the acceptability of the measures. Furthermore, personal norm was found to be particularly important for the acceptability of raised tax and the information campaign, whereas problem awareness was more important for the acceptability of improved public transport. Following up on Study II, the purpose of Study III was to examine the acceptability of single and combined transport policy measures, more specifically, raised tax on fossil fuel, improved public transport, subsidies of renewable fuel, a package of raised tax on fossil fuel and improved public transport, and a package of raised tax on fossil fuel and subsidies of renewable fuel. General environmental beliefs (i.e., pro-environmental orientation, problem awareness, personal norm, and willingness to act) and policy specific beliefs (i.e., perceived effectiveness and perceived fairness) were found to be important for the acceptability of the measures. Moreover, personal norm was particularly important for the acceptability of raised tax on fossil fuel and the packages, while problem awareness was more important for the acceptability of improved public transport and subsidies of renewable fuel. The aim of Study IV was to examine the behavioral adaptations, more specifically, the expected car use reduction, in response to three hypothetical TDM measures: raised tax on fossil fuel, improved public transport, and a package of raised tax on fossil fuel and improved public transport. Furthermore, factors important for the expected car use reduction were analyzed. Results showed that a combination of the measures was expected to lead to a larger car use reduction compared to the single measures, and the most commonly chosen reduction strategies were more efficient car use and changing travel mode. Moreover, internal motivational factors, such as personal norm, and the perceived personal impact of the measures were important for expected car use reduction in response to the measures.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe analizuojama šiuolaikinė Lietuvos alkoholio kontrolės politika. Stengdamasi atskleisti ir įvertinti Lietuvos alkoholio kontrolės politikos problemas, autorė atliko viešosios nuomonės tyrimą-apklausą, mokslinės literatūros analizę bei naudojo kitus mokslinius metodus. Darbe ne tik atskleidžiamas nepakankamas alkoholio kontrolės įgyvendinimas Lietuvoje, bet ir pateikiamos rekomendacijos, kaip jį pagerinti taikant efektyvias mokslu pagrįstas bei pasaulyje naudojamas alkoholio kontrolės priemones. Lietuvos gyventojai (apklausos rezultatų duomenimis) ir alkoholio kontrolės srities ekspertai alkoholio politiką šalyje vertina vidutiniškai. Daugelis Lietuvos gyventojų bei ekspertų pritartų griežtesnei alkoholio kontrolės politikai. Vienas iš didžiausių trukdžių įrodymais grįstai alkoholio politikai vystyti – aktyvi alkoholio pramonės įtaka šalyje. / Master's thesis analyzes the contemporary Alcohol Control Policy of Lithuania. Author of the work conducted a public opinion survey-interview, used the analysis of scientific literature and other methods of research to disclose and evaluate the issues of the Lithuanian Alcohol Control Policy. The paper not only reveals the lack of implementation of alcohol control in Lithuania, but also provides guidance on how to improve it with/adapting the effective science-based and used globally alcohol control measures. Lithuanian residents (survey data) and alcohol-control experts have an average view of this policy. Many of them support the stronger alcohol control policy. One of the major constraints on evidence-based alcohol policy development – strong influence of the alcohol industry in the country.

This manuscript is composed of three chapters.In the first chapter, I analyze the impact of key European Central Bank’s unconventional monetary policy announcements on inflation expectations, measured by Euro Area five-year Inflation Linked Swap rates five years ahead, since the aftermath of the crisis. I control for market liquidity and uncertainty measures, change in oil price shock and macroeconomic news. The results show that the impact of the European Central Bank’s announcements has been positive during the period under observation. Along the line of the expansionary monetary policy measures implemented, the agents have been revising upwards their long term inflation expectations. This means that the unconventional monetary policy measures were effective. In the second chapter, co-authored with Claudia Pacella, we construct a Bayesian vector autoregressive model with three layers of information: the key drivers of inflation, cross-country dynamic interactions, and country-specific variables. The model provides good forecasting accuracy with respect to the popular benchmarks used in the literature. We perform a step-by-step analysis to shed light on which layer of information is more crucial for accurately forecasting euro area inflation. Our empirical analysis reveals the importance of including the key drivers of inflation and taking into account the multi-country dimension of the euro area. The results show that the complete model performs better overall in forecasting inflation excluding energy and unprocessed food over the medium-term. We use the model to establish stylized facts on the euro area and cross-country heterogeneity over the business cycle. In the third chapter, using confidential firm-level data from the National Bank of Belgium, I document the heterogeneous response of firms’ markups to the 2008 financial crisis. Overall, markups increased in the aftermath of the crisis and the effect was larger for highly financially constrained firms. I show that standard heterogeneous-firm models, featuring monopolistic competition and variable markups, are unable to replicate these patterns. I then introduce endogenous demand shifters which respond to firm investment in market share (e.g. quality). I show that the interaction of an increase in the cost of procuring inputs combined with an endogenous quality downgrading can rationalize the observed changes in firm-level markups. / Doctorat en Sciences économiques et de gestion / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

Magistro baigiamąjame darbe išanalizuotos ir įvertintos palankių šeimai politikos priemonių taikymo galimybės ir nauda Vilniaus m. savivaldybės įmonėse, iškeltos šeimos ir karjeros vaidmenų derinimo problemos bei pateikti siūlymai, kaip šias problemas spręsti. Pirmojoje dalyje teoriniu aspektu tiriama šeimos ir karjeros vaidmenų derinimo dilemos šiuolaikinėje visuomenėje, pateikiama šeimos samprata globalių pokyčių perspektyvoje bei karjeros samprata, taip pat apžvelgiama lygios galimybės siekti karjeros. Antroje dalyje nagrinėjami palankios šeimai politikos aspektai, pateikiama palankios šeimai politikos samprata, supažindinama su Lietuvos ir užsienio palankia šeimai įstatymine baze bei teoriniais palankios šeimai darbovietės aspektais. Trečioje dalyje pristatomi šeimos ir karjeros vaidmenų derinimo modeliai ir jų privalumai bei trūkumai. Ketvirtoje baigiamo darbo dalyje nagrinėjamas Vilniaus m. savivaldybės įmonių darbdavių ir darbuotojų požiūris į palankias šeimai politikos priemones bei jų taikymo galimybes. Darbas užbaigiamas išvadomis ir rekomendacijomis. / Master's thesis analyzed and evaluated family-friendly policy measures and benefits of Vilnius city municipal enterprises, raised a family and career roles in reconciliation of problems and proposed the solutions of solving these issues. Reconciliation of family and career roles dilemmas in modern society are examined by theoretical aspects, the concept of change of a family in global perspective and the concept of career as well as an overview of equal opportunities to seek career is presented in the first part of the thesis The second part of the thesis deals with family friendly policy aspects; family friendly policies and introduction to Lithuanian and foreign family-friendly legal framework and family friendly theoretical workplace aspects are presented. The third section presents models of reconciliation of family and career roles, its advantages and disadvantages. The fourth part of the thesis deals with Vilnius city Municipal Enterprises employers and employees' attitudes to family-friendly policy measures and their application possibilities. The thesis is completed with conclusions and recommendations.

Uppsatsenutgör en utvärdering av en kommunal arbetsmarknadspolitisk åtgärd/insatsbenämnt Personlig Utvecklings Tjänst (PUT- tjänst, PUT) som riktas tilllångtidsarbetslösa och socialbidragsberoende invandrare i Uddevalla kommun.Åtgärden/insatsen innebär att ett visst antal individer erhållervisstidsanställning inom kommunens verksamheter i syfte att bland annat fåarbetslivserfarenhet i Sverige och referenser. Syftet med studien är attfördjupa förståelsen för hur några av de som haft PUT- anställning upplevdeden. Deras upplevelser av insatsens/anställningens påverkan på livssituationenavseende ekonomi, sociala nätverk och aktiviteter samt upplevelsen avbemötandet på PUT- arbetsplatserna ställs i centrum. Sålunda fokuseras deintervjuades resonemang kring sin livssituation beträffande övergången frånsocialbidragstagande och långtidsarbetslöshet till visstidsanställning ochegenförsörjning genom insatsen PUT. Studien undersöker också huruvida deintervjuade utökat sitt sociala nätverk till att inkludera fler personer med svenskbakgrund medelst PUT- anställningen. Även de intervjuades upplevelser av PUToch dess betydelse i vägen mot integration i arbetsmarknaden lyfts fram. Kvalitativaintervjuer genomfördes med 10 personer som haft PUT- tjänst med ambitionen att kunnauppnå syftet med studien. I intervjuerna framkom att informanterna upplevdetidsperioden de hade PUT som positiv med särskild betoning på att derasekonomiska situation förbättrades avsevärt. I syfte att bibehålla eller utökaolika former av kapital, använder informanterna olika strategier och de framförupplevelser av stigmatisering och distinktioner av varierande slag. I analysenav resultatet, förenas Bourdieu (1999), Goffman (1972) och Elias och Scotson (1999).Flera konstateranden görs i diskussionsavsnittet och slutsatsen att behov attgenomföra vissa förändringar av insatsen dras, varför det i uppsatsen ocksålämnas förslag på hur PUT skulle kunna förändras i syfte att få ännu kraftigareoch bättre slagkraft på arbetslösheten bland socialbidragstagande ochlångtidsarbetslösa invandrare. I detta sammanhang refereras också till dentidigare forskning som presenteras i uppsatsen, vilken behandlar problemområdetinvandrare och deras inkludering/exkludering från arbetsmarknaden på grund avderas grupptillhörighet. / The essay is an evaluation of a local government actionto promote employment / operation called Personlig UtvecklingsTjänst/PUT-tjänst, PUT (Personal Development Employment / PUT- employment)directed to long-term unemployed and welfare dependent immigrants in UddevallaMunicipality. The action / operation means that a certain number of individualsreceive fixed temporary employment inside the municipality's operations/activitiesin order to, inter alia, get work experience in Sweden and references. Thepurpose of this study is to deepen the understanding of how some of those whohave had PUT employment experienced it. Their experiences of the localgovernment action / employment and its impacts on living conditions, ineconomic, social networks and activities, and experience of the encounter onthe PUT workplaces is targeted. The focus is on the interviewees discussionsabout their lives about the transition from welfare dependency and long-termunemployment to fixed-term and self-sufficiency through the action PUT. Thestudy also examines whether the respondents expanded their social networks toinclude more people with Swedish background through the PUT employment. Alsothe interviewees' experiences of the PUT and its importance in the road tointegration into the labor market are highlighted. Qualitative interviews wereconducted with 10 people who had PUT employment with the ambition to achievethe aim of the study. The interviews revealed that respondents felt the timeperiod they had PUT- employment to be positive with special emphasis on theireconomic situation improved considerably. In order to maintain or expandvarious forms of capital, the respondents use different strategies and they expressexperiences of stigma and distinctions of various kinds. The analysis ofresults, combined Bourdieu (1999), Goffman (1972) and Elias and Scotson (1999).Several conclusions were made in the discussion section and settled that theneed to implement certain changes in operation is necessary. Therefore, thepaper also contains proposals on how the PUT could be changed in order to geteven stronger and better clout in unemployment among welfare dependency andlong-term unemployed migrants. In this context is also referred to the previousresearch presented in the paper, which deals with the problem area immigrantsand their inclusion / exclusion from the labor market because of their groupaffiliation.